ON March 3, 2017, when it came time for Les Mason to be sentenced for supplying 58 grams of cocaine, he told a judge he was "glad he got caught" and his involvement in the murky world of drug dealing was behind him.
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Mason, now 40, a former boxer and the older brother of former NRL player Willie Mason, came to court that day fully expecting to go to jail. But Judge Roy Ellis gave him a chance.
Instead of a jail term he ordered Mason be placed on a two-year intensive corrections order, an alternative to a full-time custodial sentence.
It was about a year into serving that sentence that detectives first received information that Mason might be supplying large amounts of cocaine and MDMA in Newcastle and that he was involved in a drug syndicate that allegedly includes accused syndicate head Matthew Shane Pearce, a personal trainer with links to the Newcastle Knights, his brother, Brett Robert Pearce, former Newcastle Knight Jarrod Mullen, Sydney identity Aaron Macey, Qantas engineer Jay Edward Ramsden, Ty Andrew Hopley and Callan Shane Warden among others.
Detectives launched Strike Force Castlestead to investigate the importation, manufacture and supply of MDMA, cocaine and industrial solvent Butanediol, an alternative to party drug Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB), in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.
And they were watching on October 10 last year when Mason collected 50 litres of Butanediol from a house at Cameron Park, loaded it into his car and drove it a short distance to a shopping centre where he supplied it to an unknown man.
Police say the substance was then driven to Sydney and delivered to a dealer who supplies large quantities of GHB.
A controlled substance, Butanediol is legitimately used as a cleaning agent but when it is ingested by users their livers turn the Butanediol into GHB.
Mason appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from Lithgow Correctional Centre where he pleaded guilty to supplying more than 12 times the threshold for a large commercial quantity of Butanediol, a charge which carries a maximum of life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Warden, 27, of New Lambton, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to supplying more than 200 grams of cocaine and supplying a commercial quantity of Butanediol.
Ramsden, 28, of Kingsford, also appeared and pleaded guilty to supplying an indictable quantity of cocaine.
The Pearce brothers and Macey will appear in court again on October 30.
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